B whole tone scale

6 notes · six equal steps

Six notes, every step a whole tone, so it has no semitone anywhere and therefore no leading tone and no perfect fifth. Nothing in it points anywhere, which is why it is used to suspend a moment rather than to move through one.

Heard in: Debussy, cartoon dream sequences, and over a 7♯5.

Key

C C♯D E♭E F F♯G A♭A B♭B

major natural minor dorian mixolydian lydian phrygian locrian harmonic minor melodic minor lydian dominant altered major pentatonic minor pentatonic blues whole tone diminished half-whole diminished

The notes of B whole tone

The whole scale, with each note’s degree underneath it.

♯4

♯5

♯6

Twelve frets in standard tuning, high E at the top. Each dot is labelled with its degree rather than its note, because that is the part that moves with you when you play the shape somewhere else. The green dot is the root of whatever is being shown — the scale, or the chord chosen out of it.

Chords from B whole tone

Every degree of this scale builds the same chord -- an augmented triad -- because the scale repeats every whole tone. There are only two whole-tone scales in all, and each one contains six augmented triads that are all the same three-note shape moved.

What to play B whole tone over

The chords on B whose every note this scale contains, biggest first. The largest of them is the one that pins the scale down: over B9b5 there is nothing in B whole tone that can sound wrong.

B9b5 Baug9 B7b5 Baug7 Baug

Every scale on every root is on the scale index, and every chord on the chord index. Where the shapes and the theory come from is on the about page.

B whole tone scale

The notes of B whole tone

Chords from B whole tone

What to play B whole tone over

Midi Settings

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